A Compelling Texas Regional Modern Treehouse

This Texas Regional Modern treehouse is every childhood fantasy come to life. It’s today’s equivalent of entering the fairytale castle over the drawbridge or swinging into Tarzan and Jane’s pad.

Dave Perry-Miller listing agent Stephen Collins described the feeling of the home perfectly.

“It’s compelling,” he said. “If your heart rate does not go up 10 percent when you enter this house, then you don’t have a heartbeat. It’s that good!”

Architect Stephen B. Chambers designed this Texas Regional Modern treehouse in 1998, setting it deep into the landscape. It’s still prominently displayed on Chambers’ website, so you know it’s one in a million. Chambers’ site has the following about the challenges and rewards of the design:

A steeply sloping lot could have presented a problem in the design of this Texas Regional Modern home located in North Dallas, but instead, it gave our firm a most creative opportunity. We combined the family’s program to keep most of the everyday living to one level of the home with the steep drop of the lot to produce a ‘treehouse’ effect, which is seen most dramatically from the back interior of the home. The home is entered via a bridge at the front, where the visitor arrives into the main entertainment area and the second level of the house.

Rather than cut and fill the lot, as is often done in Dallas, Texas, the design takes full advantage of the natural topography of the property, enabling the preservation of most of the existing trees. The result is a thoroughly modern home overlooking a forested lot from the vantage point of two stories of glass at the rear. It is a sophisticated loft within the trees and meets all of the client’s requirements by providing the living areas on the upper level.

If a Texas Regional Modern home with 4,631 square feet, three bedrooms, and two bathrooms is not quite enough for you, there’s more.

A few years ago, the owners had architect Paul Field, a founding principal of Wernerfield, design a separate office and guest cottage on the property. Of course, you get to them by another walkway through the trees. They were constructed with shou sugi ban treated wood. This is an ancient Japanese method of charring wood to preserve it and make it weatherproof. It’s not only a brilliant technique, but the resulting charcoal black color is also dramatic.

“If you are an artist or a writer, you are in nirvana, “Collins said.

If the idea of living in a blissful Texas Regional Modern treehouse is at the top of your checklist for a home, Steve Collins and Dixey Arterburn have 10045 Surrey Oaks Drive listed for $3.75 million.